Last year this column featured two methods of pasteurization that could be applied to liquid products, including milk and/or juices.* Both of these methods used novel ways of applying a short duration heat and/or pressure treatment to achieve an effective sterilization/pasteurization without changing the delicate flavors of the product.
This month is a look at a novel “raslysation” (the inventor’s name for roughly, a cold sterilization) technique that can be used to pasteurize milk and other non-transparent liquids. The sterilization process uses a newly patented ultraviolet (UV) source. The UV-based technology is claimed to use typically 90% less energy and more than 60% less water than traditional heating/cooling pasteurization processes. Sounds simple, but not so much. You may very well be familiar with UV light sources used to sterilize air flows in HVAC systems or to kill bacteria and other germs in water treatment systems, but to work in nearly opaque liquids seems a daunting challenge.